Migration policy must have public support

The EU will not solve the migration & asylum crisis by forcing reluctant EU countries to adopt rules they have opposed from the beginning, said ECR Group co-chair Syed Kamall today following the publication by the European Commisison of a series of progress reports on migration and a judgement from the European Court of Justice on the relocation of asylum seekers.

The reports evaluate the EU’s Relocation and Resettlement scheme, European Border and Coast Guard, EU-Turkey Statement and Partnership Framework on Migration.

They follow this morning’s decision by the ECJ to overrule Hungary and Slovakia’s objections to the compulsory fixed-quota scheme, under which less than 28,000 people have been relocated, significantly less than the 160,000 asylum seekers envisaged when the scheme was introduced in September 2015.

Mr. Kamall said: “The EU would be more successful if voters in individual EU countries actually backed the policies that the EU adopted in the first place, rather than forcing them through without consensus amongst all members states. Today’s reports from the European Commission proves that relocation isn’t working, the numbers speak for themselves.

“We now need to focus on specific and co-ordinated actions. More support needs to be offered to individual EU countries to strengthen reception and processing capacities, speed up the decision-making process and the return of failed asylum applicants. The EU should also focus more on tackling irregular migration at its sources, and by combatting traffickers who exploit refugees and economic migrants into making dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean.”